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The Devil Makes Three is a very special trio, mixing old country blues, gospel, banjo reels, and ragtime, back-country stomp into a potent brand of folk-punk that has made their live shows near legendary. The band's albums (there have been five of them before this one) are pretty memorable, too, but I'm a Stranger Here, produced in Nashville by Buddy Miller (who also plays guitar and baritone guitar on the album), has a warm and coherent sound to it that harnesses the band's chaotic energy without denying it, making it ...
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The Devil Makes Three is a very special trio, mixing old country blues, gospel, banjo reels, and ragtime, back-country stomp into a potent brand of folk-punk that has made their live shows near legendary. The band's albums (there have been five of them before this one) are pretty memorable, too, but I'm a Stranger Here, produced in Nashville by Buddy Miller (who also plays guitar and baritone guitar on the album), has a warm and coherent sound to it that harnesses the band's chaotic energy without denying it, making it arguably the trio's best studio outing to date. Lead singer and guitarist Pete Bernhard's songs have always been remarkably timeless, as if they come from another era but also belong to this one, a feel that Miller's production, which mostly featured the band in a single-room live setting, wonderfully captures. The album falls together seamlessly, from the opener, "Stranger," with its bluesy horn section, through the chugging shuffle "Worse or Better" and the speedy, ragged hoedown "Dead Body Moving," to the set-closer, the lovely country ballad "Goodbye Old Friend." At times, as in the folk country stomps "Hallelu" and "Spinning Like a Top," the band sounds like a feisty mix of the Lovin' Spoonful and Country Joe & the Fish on a careening moonshine-and-coffee jag. That's not a bad thing. It adds up to the Devil Makes Three's most consistent and balanced album yet. [An LP version was also released.] ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi
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